UFC featherweight contender Movsar Evloev wants the 145 belt first and foremost above anything in the fight game.
He also wants one name on his mantle.
“Even if the champion moves up, he will leave the title. I will get the title and then I will follow him. Lightweight is not too far for me,” he told MMAFighting.
“Even if he moves up, I will take the belt first because this is my first goal.”
The current champion, Ilia Topuria, has been kicking around the possibility of moving up to lightweight to challenge 155 champ Islam Makhachev. Understandably it would leave featherweights hanging in the air as they have to wait or fight while Topuria moves up.
Evloev doesn’t care. If Topuria moves up, he will chase him at any weight.
“So then I will go after him, even if he goes to middleweight. It doesn’t matter. He’s not a big guy. I don’t need to cut the weight to beat this guy. I need his head on my list,” he said.
All of this happening as the featherweight division sees some changes in it’s roster. Former champion Max Holloway decided to go up to lightweight following his title loss to Topuria last year. Former bantamweight champion Aljamain Sterling moved up to featherweight and fought Evloev to a decision.
It leaves Evloev in an interesting position to almost choose between the title or chasing Topuria.
“To be honest, it’s not easy to even understand what’s going on. Because Max said he will not come back to featherweight again,” he said.
“So Ilia’s talking that he’s moving up, also, especially after my fight. I don’t know what’s going on. For me, it doesn’t matter who will be my next opponent.”
Movsar Evloev currently has no fight scheduled.
